I THINK the particular instance that’s being referred to here is that the US bigjobs are pissed at him because their nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t kill as many civilians as they wanted because Seeker whooshed them out of there.
EDIT: I think the other points are Seeker absolutely fucking up Berlin at the end of WW2.
That doesn’t make any sense to me since that wasn’t even Kratis but someone else who was Seeker. He’s kind of like Black Panther when it comes to different people taking up the mantle but then again politicans has no logic whatsoever
That’s fine, I thought Seeker mighta destroyed london cause of the dunkirk reference
I think it’s because being Seeker is a job with a job description nobody but the Seekers themselves know, so people have the expectation that in events as determinant as those, any two Seekers will act similarly.
My comment above is about the ‘previous’ Seeker (which isn’t correct, the Seeker before Kratis was Victoria), the one that was active in WW2.
‘Stopped an empire in their tracks’ = Ruined Operation Mercury and kept Crete free, as well as killing Rommel.
‘Pulled a Dunkirk on his own’ = The Dash of Japan, him evacuating civilians out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki right before the nukes.
‘Savaged an Empire’s capital’ = Seeker destroyed Berlin. Ignis mentions this in her two articles, but it’s theorized Hitler didn’t kill himself because of the Allies, and more because Seeker was in the city and coming for him.
@Jjcb Quick Question, as a man of the valleys and the sheep, as there ever been a welsh superhero? Has there ever been a scottish one? Or are they clustered in America?
Sorry, I was on my way back home from college and moving vehicles + phones = baaaaaaaad times.
To answer your question, yes, definitely. Powered people are a worldwide phenomenon, so there’s some in every place you can think of. I’ll admit I don’t know too much about the history of Wales or Scotland, so I can’t point to any specific figure of their past, but the Arthurian legend (for example) has been essentially turned into a powered tale.
The Royal Powered Agency (the British equivalent to the League, essentially) also counts a Scottish member amongst its numbers nowadays. He’s in a bit of a scuffle with the PM, since he supports Scottish independence.
Hi, I just read the through the demo and it was great, I really love all the characters. I don’t have any feedback but I do have a question, is this going to be a standalone book, like one and done or are you planing it to be a series of books?
It’s a planned series.
Hello! I’m glad you enjoyed the demo, it’s good to know the cast caught your interest. 
The plan is for a series, yes, as @JBento says. It’s going to be a trilogy.
Book 1 is mostly set-up and establishing connections, which is why you don’t see many consequences or anything of the sort yet. You gotta wait until the final chapters for the ‘meat’ to be revealed.
On other news, I knocked out 3k words or so last night. I’ve figured out a way to write the plot without getting bogged down on the minutiae of the writing, so we’re progressing a lot faster. We may be releasing Chapter 5 by the end of October. 
In the meantime, have two small-ish teasers.
Three important lines of Chapter 5:
Это приказ! Ваш подопечный командует вами!
Maiores ego curas habeo quam tu, stulte stulte!
Помни свою гребаную клятву, Валькирия!
And a small preview of what I’ve mentioned happens when, and you should be worried, ‘Ignis is in the slightest of danger’.
You know, I’m only into women but that’s a good man right there. I approve of extreme violence against people who do the people I care about harm. 
Some Latin about somebody being a fool and Russian about remembering a Valkyrie oath? Admittedly I’m not very proficient with either Latin or Russian…I could run it through translate, but that would require more effort. Does this have to do with that previous Seeker woman, Victoria?
Seems like an argument between somebody speaking Russian and the other person Latin? Just how old is it? Because that’s gotta be like the 1400’s tops likely before Latin was replaced by French as the lingua Franca. Unless of course both parties were speaking those to avoid being understood by listening ears.
The fact that Latin is being used has to do with her, I suppose, but she isn’t the subject of conversation, no. 
No such thing. These are statements coming from the heat of the moment. They’re not thought out very deeply, or deeply enough for this to be the decision behind it.
I’m gonna go with Forlorn, who has the tattoo of a valkyrie in one of his arms.
One thing to note, it’s a tattoo of a Valkyria.
The design doesn’t differ (much), but it is 100% a different term, and written that way very much on purpose.
Valkyries mean nothing to Forlorn. A Valkyria does.
I would like to know more.
EDIT: Googling only gives me that valkyrie is the modern spelling of valkyrja, but doesn’t hint at any difference between their significants.
I’ve mentioned before that Forlorn used to be a soldier. He was pretty high-ranked by the end of his tenure, being a Major-Commander.
He served in what’s known as the Valkyria Regiment.
That name is inspired by the Heavenly Kingdom religion I mentioned before. The Valkyria is a prominent member of its mythology, and I wrote a short excerpt a while back relating her history:
"The Valkyria had lost the Heavens’ favour. She was no longer their champion, and that hurt her more than all the bayonets and swords that broke upon her skin in the past. So she requested a chance, an opportunity to prove she was still worthy of their love.
The Heavens gave her one, and sent her to the 106th floor of Hell. ‘Make your way back to us,’ they told her. ‘Prove your skill at arms, as well as your dedication to us, by breaking through all the monsters and temptations that will be on your path.’
For a year, the Valkyria fought. From the deepest pit of hell, she rose up, floor after floor, fight after fight, never stopping to rest, to ask for help, to make sure that the Heavens hadn’t forsaken her. For a year, she made her way from the most wretched place in the world, resolute to come back to her Heavenly leaders.
And she made it, after a year and three days of constant battle. She came back to those who sent her away, showing that her loyalty and mettle couldn’t be shaken by anything the universe could throw at her.
Now… the demands for us are different. But hers is the maxim we live by, and the one we hope to reach." - A Captain-Commander of the 92nd squadron, Valkyria Regiment.
All of this stuff will be very important by the end of the game. I recommend you keep notes, or at least bookmarks.
Now that’s fun… whether the Valkyria was named for Valkyria Regiment or vice versa had been one of those questions I’d been wondering about, because it (possibly) helps us date the formation of the Regiment due to the reference to “bayonets and swords”. That the Regiment is named for the Valkyria suggests it’s more likely to have formed during or after the gunpowder era. I still stand by the Varangian hypothesis, but I’ve yet to come up with a convincing cause for a schism yet. We’ll see.
Now that I’m writing this, it’s occurred to me that this statement doesn’t technically require that the Valkyria predate the Regiment. But I’ve already come this far, so…
Anyway! More concrete hypothesis time!
Does anyone else think that the MC’s set of powers would be very useful for playing the role of the Valkyria? A year of fighting from the deepest pit of hell, floor after floor, fight after fight, nonstop, without help, ascending towards the Heavens? The battlelust, the immense physical strength, the energy manipulation, the intelligence… and the charm to become a saint ofc (/jk). The ability where, if a menace like Forlorn is about to reduce you to a pile of goo, the power within rises to strike back even harder.
Let’s pause for a moment and think about Forlorn and Valkyria Regiment. By the time he was 16, he was already a Major-Commander. In other words, Forlorn was a child soldier, nay, a child officer. What is it about Forlorn that would’ve placed him in such a position? I posit that it was his strength; that is, the fact that he’s one of the most powerful beings known to exist on planet Earth. Could the Regiment be a place where the strong rule? Where strength and power is what ought to be cultivated, like a certain Other You might think?
Maybe. This made a lot more sense to me when I could believe that the Heavens were made up of beings like Other You and Other Lat, and that there was an Other Valkyria to pass that mindset onto unsuspecting humans. But things have gotten a lot more complicated. It’s still food for thought, though.
By the way, for the quotes:
Это приказ! Ваш подопечный командует вами!
Maiores ego curas habeo quam tu, stulte stulte!
Помни свою гребаную клятву, Валькирия!
All three are probably directed at Forlorn. The third one is the clearest connection, with the “Valkyria!” The second one is probably Seeker to Forlorn: it’s already established that Seeker speaks Latin, and that we can sic Seeker on Forlorn in Chapter 5. The real interesting part of it to me is that he’s got more important things to worry about than “the World’s Strongest Man” and his teammate going on a rampage. And the first one is probably about Aki, who would be the ward/fosterling (подопечный) in question: Aki trying to talk down Forlorn is also confirmed for Chapter 5.
So all in all, a lot of love for the big guy, which I’m really enjoying. Still not enough to displace Nova for me, though.
I mean, he’s gotta be called Forlorn for a reason, amirite? Not to mention how his character song in choicescript_stats is Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, quote “Oh my friends, my friends / Don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for”. And how he’s former Valkyria, though that may be for different reasons - still an open question there, especially re: the oath(s). But the idea that putting a child in command just because they’re strong would run the risk of Bad Things Happening is a feature of this particular hypothesis, not a bug.
I’ll also make a note about strength: the story so far, imo, makes it clear that strength - even for supers, and even acknowledging its fundamental inequities among supers - is something that needs to be honed and tested over time. The League is always training (albeit not training at full throttle); the King and Queen sparred frequently. Dedication and focus are a part of that. But Forlorn learning martial arts and tactics is him playing to his strengths; it’s part of his strength. Without that? Would you think Valkyria Regiment would make this teenage brat a commander without his powers? I’m doubtful, even acknowledging the leap of intuition needed to get there.
And let’s take all that and apply it to what Forlorn tells us in the Koiwan Training Hall:
“Pretty much,” Forlorn says. “Though you shouldn’t get too cocky about your strength.”
“Oh?”
“Gather enough ants, and you can take down an elephant. Gather enough people…”
“… and even we can be taken down?” you finish for him.
“Well, not necessarily,” Forlorn replies with a shrug. “But overwhelming strength alone doesn’t always make up for numbers. You should keep that in mind.”
I mean, Forlorn isn’t just strong, he’s also dedicated. He insists on taking fighting classes before he’s even a teenager. I’d wager it’s that dedication and focus that propels him up the ranks, if for no other reason than a regiment lead by the strong and not the tactically-able stops being a regiment pretty damn fast, unless thye can regiment from the grave.
Well, to be entirely fair, that’s the kind of thing that matters to normal people. When your unit consists of people that can shrug off bullets and the like, then the whole point of ‘tactics’ goes by the wayside, since you can just bruteforce the matter.
Not to say that’s what’s going on here, of course. There’s a bit more regarding the Valkyria regiment (my own inspirating when designing them were Imperial Germany’s Stormtroopers, fyi), but tactics and strategy aren’t that relevant to powered people.
The same thing happened with the BK and BQ. They’re both unbelievably powerful, but they were essentially helpless when it came to military matters. The Cretan armies and navies were basically designed by the Sfakians and what few Arab captains they had to foist it on. As far as the Queen knew, ‘well, cavalry is the most prestigious, so why not make our whole army cavalry?’
As an aside, I wrote two… snippets, basically, though they’re more previews of a conversation the MC will have later on. They are basically hints of what the big deals of the plot will be. See under the cut for them.
“There is little, very little, that is more dangerous than hope. I do not think anything else carries with it as much risk as hope does.”
“I don’t follow. Isn’t hope a good thing?”
“Most times, yes, but… Well. Have you ever heard the argument of who’s more dangerous? ‘The man with nothing left to lose’, or ‘the man with everything’?”
“Yes, of course. It’s a pretty common question online.”
“See, most people think it’s the former. ‘A man with nothing to lose’, they say, ‘has no limits. No qualms about what to do. He won’t hesitate, because it’s not like things can possibly get worse.’”
“And I take it you don’t agree.”
“I don’t, but not because I think the other side has the right of it. No, I believe both sides are wrong. Not to ask the question, but to think it has to be one or the other. In reality, the answer is a mixture.”
“… A mixture?”
“They’re right on some part. A man who has nothing left to lose won’t balk at most things. Things can’t get worse, so really, there’s nothing that can hold them back. But that’s where the agreement ends. Men aren’t machines, to do things just because they ‘can’. They need to want to do things. There needs to be an impetus, a desire. And a man with nothing to lose, a man without hope, does not have that. You can take all the limitations away from a man, but unless he wants to do something, he won’t.”
“So you’re saying the man with nothing left to lose is useless?”
“I’m saying he’s broken. He’s a shell, who lives only because of inertia. Routine is the only thing that keeps him eating, and it is the only thing that gets him out of bed. But that’s where the danger comes.”
“The danger of hope?”
“Take a man’s home away. Take his family, take his job, hell, take the whole of his people, even his soul, and then imprint on him the knowledge that he can’t do anything about it. Force him to accept this is reality, and you know what’ll happen? He will. He’ll stop struggling, and accept his lot in life. He will become wretched, maybe, but he’ll not strive for anything more.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Ah, but then you tell him he can have it all back. Show him that there’s more than what he’s been forced to accept. It doesn’t have to be much. If anything, it’s best if you give him very little. Just a glimpse, at most, of everything he once had. And then you’ll see.”
“See what?”
“The lengths he’ll go. The limits he’ll cross, the rules he will shatter. There’s no line too far, no sacrifice too great. There never is. Not if he has hope.”
“How could you know this?”
“Because I’ve seen it. People can take far more than we believe. A man with hope will stand hunger and thirst. The blazing heat, the biting cold. He will march on broken feet, fight even when he has no more blood to spill. He will declare a one-man war on death itself, and wage it for a thousand years if he has to.”
“Are you talking about-”
“‘A man with no hope’, they say. Oh, no, no. That’s not the danger. No, a man without hope is no threat. But a man- No, a people. A people with hope will see the whole world set ablaze.”
— The Musings of a Seer, a Warning on What’s to Come.
“It would be impolite, I think, to lay the blame upon the dead. And yet, I believe that it must be done regardless. It’d only hurt you, in the future, if I were to downplay the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“The world, as it exists today, is arguably due to a single existence. America, the whole of Europe, Africa itself, perhaps even Oceania, as distant as it is, would not even remotely resemble what they are now. It… I suppose it is ridiculous. For the world to seemingly only exist due to the whims of a poor, adopted child that lived in the Mediterranean more than a thousand years ago.”
“… You talk of the Queen?”
“Yes, I do. Of the woman that saved a whole island from extinction, that carved a kingdom of her own while tumbing her nose at an empire, and who has had that same kingdom outlive any and all that surrounded it, while becoming a bastion that even the might of half a dozen empires has yet to crack.”
“An exemplary leader, if everything we’ve learned is to be believed.”
“Ha, perhaps. But exemplary does not equal perfect. The Queen had her flaws, and nowhere else is it as keenly seen as with her chosen companion.”
“The King? But I thought they loved each other. It’s the whole reason he’s seeking her revival, isn’t it? How is he a flaw?”
“Hmm… I suppose calling it a flaw is too much. But it’s a lack of foresight, or a mark of overconfidence, at least.”
“I don’t follow.”
“The King is a beast. When the Queen first found him, he was an even wilder one. He didn’t know of morals, of laws, not even of how to eat anything except what he hunted and burned. He didn’t even have a name, so unaware of society that he only knew of the merchants he stole from, and the troops sent to put him down, all broken at the feet of a beast raised by the laws of the uncaring African deserts. It was the Queen that changed him from that to a monarch revered even a thousand years after his disappearance.”
“How?”
“By beating him bloody. Not that he took it quietly, of course. They both bear the marks of that fight. A sign, maybe, that they were each other’s from the day they met. Regardless, the Queen won, in the end. For some reason, one not even I know, she didn’t put him to the sword. Instead, she had him join her, and together they saw the world. She taught him history, geography, arithmetics, what was right and wrong, and even the languages she so adored. It was by her side, and through her efforts, that the King became who he is.”
“Those all sounds like good things though? I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem is that the Queen was a child. A more educated one than the King, perhaps, but she was as much of a child as him. A child, educating a child. Do you see the problem now? The Queen did not reform her King. She taught him her biases, her desires, and that the only wrongs that existed were the ones she disapproved, not the ones the rest of the world considered. The King’s morality is not one of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. It is one of ‘what the Queen likes’ and ‘what the Queen dislikes.’ The sole reason Constantinople was not turned into a crater, and Crete the capital of an Empire spanning from Lisbon to Vladivostok is that she never asked for it. The Queen did not vanquish the beast. She only tamed it, buried it beneath chains she forged. And now…”
“And now?”
“And now the Queen is dead. She has been dead for a thousand years. And though the King’s devotion is no less strong, the chains that bind the beast within have not survived intact. And unless you see the whole East Coast turned into a wasteland as a good thing, that is a problem.”
“You’re saying the King will revert to what he was like before?”
“I am saying the King is a beast. For a thousand years, that beast has been content to starve, content to see the world beat on it even though it only tries to regain its mate. The chains on its neck have made sure of that. But now? Now, centuries have passed since those chains were put down. Now, the ones who think themselves masters of the world prepare to march on the Queen’s dream. Now, an enemy he cannot see or understand makes the world think of him as an enemy. Now, that beast sees itself cornered, with its ward threatened, and only foes around it.”
“And threaten a beast enough…”
“And it won’t care where its teeth sink, only that it can rip off the limb.”
— The Musings of a Seer, a Warning on What’s to Come.
